WildMedic

Around Cape Point by Powered Paraglider

Ross — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:56:20 +0000

Yesterday yielded the opportunity to do one of the premier Cape powered paraglider flights – Cape Point. The PPG is an incredibly portable and versatile aircraft, but with a cruising speed of only around 25 knots and maximum sustainable speed peaking at 37 knots for the fastest XC wings, we need ideal wind conditions to attempt routes such as these. We have specifically been watching for forecast conditions that would allow a new first – flying around the peninsula, down one side and back up the other. To date all flights (only 4-5 other occasions that the flight has been successfully completed) have been exclusively along the western side. 30 April 2013 had a forecast for light ESE in the morning with light to moderate SW in the afternoon. As all pilots know, forecasts are completely trustworthy… or not.

Crossing Noordhoek towards Fish Hoek

We launched in the late morning from Hout Bay in a very light breeze; anything helps when you are foot-launching with a full tank of fuel. Climbing over the neck between Noordhoek and Chapman’s Peaks, we climbed steadily to 2000ft, and then overflew FAR139 (the controlled airspace around the Simonstown Naval Base) with pre-arranged permission. The views flying south along the coast were beautiful; False Bay at peace with the encircling mountains hazy in the distance.

Paramotors over False Bay: MDK (Powerplay Scorpio with Nirvana 190) and ANT (Ozone Speedster wit PAP Moster 185) flying south along the Cape Peninsula

The hands-off flying was rudely interrupted when we reached the end of the Klaasjagersberg ridge, however: an increasingly strong north-west breeze threw turbulent air off the peak and caused a few minutes of tachycardia. Flying closer to Cape Point, it was apparent that the wind was persistently NW, and strong enough to cause pause for reassessment. Prevented from flying lower by the restricted arispace over Cape P0int Nature Reserve, we crossed high from Diaz Cross to Diaz Beach to Diaz Point. Feeling that discretion was better than a long lonely swim, we didn’t fly beyond the point in the northwest wind.

MDK at 2000′ over Cape Point with False Bay in the background

A long and slow but beautiful flight back up the western side of the peninsula followed; only beyond the reserve could we dip down below the inversion at 1000ft and find the forecast southerly. Climbing again from Kommetjie, we bypassed the long white sands of Noordhoek Beach and routed directly into Hout Bay with dwindling fuel supplies. The breeze in Hout Bay on the ground was still SE and brisk enough to allow a three perfect landings on the doorstep of Dunes, where we were welcomed for a celebratory cold drink.

Crossing towards Hout Bay with Table Mountain in the far distance

A little over two hours flying, 75km distance covered, a fuel consumption of 9, 10 and 12 liters for the three paramotors = priceless new experience.

Track log on Leonardo. More images below – click on a thumbnail to go to the slideshow.

Greyton to Botrivier PPG

Ross — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:40:26 +0000

My good mate Ant of The Aerial Perspective was very kind to invite me along to Greyton, where he needed to take some pictures. We cruised out there in the Vito early this morning to find the town dead still (wind and street-life) with heavy dew on the ground, and so we stopped at a local coffee shop for tea and toast. Greyton is as pleasantly bucolic as I remember, albeit somewhat more developed these days.

Greyton from the air. Photo courtesy of The Aerial Perspective

After completing consumption of our comestibles we went looking for a launch area. The Greyton Sports Club had a nice field, but it was still very wet and surrounded on three sides by trees. A foray down the other end of town was more fruitful…well, too fruitful, in fact. Not only did we find a great little field, which was slightly raised and offered a puff of wind, but it was also downwind of the dump and sewage settlement ponds. To complete the scene, a large herd of splendidly flatulent bovines stood contemplating us from over the fence. Perfect. Although the field was small and the ponds large, the light wind was conveniently blowing across the corners, offering a decent run and space to climb out. We rigged quickly, and then I helped Ant launch so that he could get the photography done quickly. I was rapidly ready to go, and then in my enthusiasm flooded my engine and had to take if off to get it restarted. By that stage, the wind had almost disappeared, and what little remained was now blowing directly over the ponds, across the short axis of the already short field. Eish.

Launching over the sewage settlement dam… I recall mental commentary about being in deep something. Photo: The Aerial Perspective

I have plenty of faith in my Speedster to lift off quickly and keep flying through all sorts of cr@ppy air, but exiting over actual excrement was a new one for both of us. Needless to say (as Ant’s photo will attest) we slipped the surly bonds of earth before they became faeculent and were soon dancing the skies on sweeter smelling winds. The photographic work was done within a few minutes. The sun was now beginning to make itself felt on the farmlands, and we were flying in and out of thermic bubbles strong enough to upset the non-PG PPG crowd, but I was still very happy. Ant kindly offered to drive retrieve should I wish to keep flying, and so I filed my “IFR (I Follow Roads)…see you somewhere near Botrivier” flight plan and set off.

Flying IFR on my Ozone Speedster. Photo: The Aerial Perspective

The lumpy air over the farmlands and hills encouraged me to fly low along the Riviersondered River, where the view was interesting and the air still a bit cooler and smoother. Trims open and with a light easterly tail-wind, the Speedster was cruising at 75-80km/h ground speed. The sights as I progressed upstream were lovely: farmhouses with dogs loping along, orchards and plowed fields, flock upon flock of Egyptian and Spur-winged Geese, and three pairs of Fish Eagles. Past Helderstroom I was tempted to fly up the gorge to the Theewaterskloof Dam wall, but a combination of concern regarding the upper-level winds (clouds showed evidence of a strong northerly, and Ant later reported whitecaps on the dam itself) and not wanting to cause airspace upsets near a major dam discouraged me. Forced to leave the Riviersonderend, I climbed (aided by some thermals) up and over the ridge bearing the R43, and then dropped down the other side into the Botrivier valley. Here the southeaster was beginning to make it’s presence felt; I didn’t feel the compulsion to let the trims out again, as we had a few small collapses and one decent 40%-er flying over a rocky ridge. Definitely an area in which we need to try more PG XC!

Low over the Riviersondend river, searching for the end… Photo: The Aerial Perspective

The flanks of Houwhoek mountain begged to be soared; I allowed the engine to idle and climbed gently over the fynbos for several minutes while crossing the broad face. The town of Botrivier presented itself quickly, and I overcame the temptation to continue up onto the Elgin plateau when I turned into wind and found my ground speed drop to a snail’s pace. Botrivier presented a landing option in the form of paired rugby and soccer fields, and I gratefully accepted, landing gently after just more than an hour and ~55km (~45km straight-line) distance covered. What a great flight!

Flight track overview – “IFR” = I Follow Rivers/Roads

Photographs of the author courtesy of Ant Allen, copyright The Aerial Perspective

Great SA PPG video

Ross — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:15:07 +0000

Eish… the work, she has been too much.

I have been nose-to-grindstone for quite some time, but the experience has been incredibly rich, with a number of firsts. Some of those stories will follow, I hope, but the blog takes a back seat at these times. Unfortunately, the flying has also been exceptionally sparse. In the absence of my own escapades, I stumbled across this video. It captures much of the essence of PPG in South Africa. Enjoy.

Paramoteur: South African Tour 2012 from Luc Trépanier on Vimeo.

En septembre 2012, Cyril et moi sommes allés en Afrique du Sud pour visiter au sol, mais surtout pour survoler en paramoteur ce magnifique pays. Nous y avons rencontré des pilotes ayant un haut niveau de maîtrise de notre sport. Ces derniers nous ont grandement facilité la tache au cours de notre voyage et nous en sommes reconnaissant. L’Afrique du Sud est un pays offrant des paysages et une faune unique. Ce petit vidéo sans prétention relate quelques vols que nous y avons fait. C’était mon premier voyage dans cette région du monde et je ne souhaite qu’une chose, c’est d’y retourner.

In September 2012, Cyril and I went to South Africa to visit the country from the ground but also to fly with our paramotor over some magnificant places. We have met pilots with high skill level who help us along our trip through the country and we thank them. South Africa has a unique wildlife and landscapes to offer. This unpretentious little video present some flights that we have done. It was my first trip to this part of the world and the only thing I wish is to go back.

SASA 2013 – Ross’ Rough Notes – Full set

Ross — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:20:28 +0000

Wow, I’m exhausted. The 2013 South African Society of Anaesthesiologists congress was a fabulous success, with huge kudos going to the local and national bodies who did all the hard work. I was particularly gobsmacked by the quality of the registrar presentations, but everything from the overseas guest speakers down to the ice-cream stand was great. Some contentious issues, some good arguments… and some bad ones

Due to the nature of the multiple streams, I attended a fraction of the talks and didn’t even take notes for all of those, but this year’s “Rough Notes” compendium still runs to 41 pages. I’ve caught up the talks of the first day of the refresher that were missing, and tried to correct the blatant typographical errors and mistakes. Please feel free to share the link, with all the usual disclaimers:

SASA 2013 – Ross’ Rough Notes – Complete Set

SASA have also made many of the abstracts (especially the guest speakers) available in the latest issue of SAJAA. You can find the Table of Contents and links to the full PDFs here:

SAJAA 2013 Vol 19, No 1: Table of Contents

Your feedback and/or comments here on the blog are always welcomed. Enjoy!

Grrr… “To err is human; to really muck up you need a computer”

Ross — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:48:04 +0000

A glitch somewhere in the Matrix has caused all the permalinks (the nice descriptive links to my blog’s posts and page) to fail. We’re busy looking for the problem, but haven’t found it yet, so if you’ve landed up on the home page after trying to follow a link from elsewhere, I apologize. You can find what you’re looking for either by clicking on one of the categories on the right, or by typing search terms into the search window on the top right-hand corner of each page. For instance, if you’re here for the SASA notes, type “SASA 2013″ (or 2012, etc.) If you’d like info on powered hang-gliding, try that as a term. If you’re here for info on nyotaimori, try Wikipedia (if you’re at work) or Google (if you’re not). For everything else, there is Mastercard. :p

SASA 2013 – Ross’ Rough Notes – Congress Day 2

Ross — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:22:28 +0000

I was taking part and listening to the Registrar Communications stream for most of the day today, which was absolutely fantastic (even if I say so myself!). The quality was phenomenal. As a consequence of doing my own talk, however, I didn’t transcribe all of the others. Here’s the rest, and some updated notes:

SASA 2013 – Ross’ Rough Notes – Congress day 2 (incomplete)

My talk (on Confined Space Intubation) is available on the Presentations page here on the blog.

SASA 2013 – Rough Notes – Congress Day 1

Ross — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:18:34 +0000

The first day of the main congress has just been completed. I felt strongly about attending the registrar research stream in the afternoon after the plenaries, which proved to be fascinating and of very high quality. Unfortunately, my battery again suffered for the last two talks, so I apologize that those were not transcribed. The notes from the first day of the refresher still need to be completed, but here is the draft in the meantime:

SASA 2013 – Ross’ Rough Notes – Day 1-3 (incomplete)

Beautiful time-lapse photography

Ross — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 06:15:01 +0000

Stumbled across this while doing other things and couldn’t help wanting to share. Watch in HD if you can. Folks from Cape Town and surrounds will particularly enjoy the new visions of familiar scenery…

A Lapse in Time – 2012 Time Lapse Showreel of Rory Allen from Rory on Vimeo.

SASA 2013 – Ross’ Rough Notes – Day 2

Ross — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:48:20 +0000

Here are the updated notes after the second day of the refresher course. I still have to find a chance to transcribe the notes from yesterday after my laptop battery died. Day 2 is complete.

SASA 2013 – Ross’ Rough Notes – Day 2 (incomplete)

SASA Congress 2013 – Ross’ Rough Notes – Refresher Day 1

Ross — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 11:02:05 +0000

The annual South African Society of Anaesthesiologists Congress for 2013 is underway in Port Elizabeth, where we are being treated to good organisation, excellent weather and great hospitality. I’m trying to keep some rough scribbles to jog my memory down the road. As usual, I offer these notes to the wider community with the caveats that they are typed by me very rapidly during the sessions, and thus may have errors in typography or interpretation. They are also not a complete record, but rather the points that I think valuable/interesting and manage to transcribe in time. If you find them useful, feel free to share the link.

Day 1′s notes are incomplete, as my laptop battery didn’t last all day. I’ll type the rest when I have a chance. A complete set of notes will be posted here on the blog when the congress is completed, and I’ll try provide links to any presentations and a copy of our poster etc.

SASA 2013 – Ross’ Rough Notes – Day 1

The PE crowd also treated us to a great party on the beach last night, replete with live music and a ‘Red’ theme…which may be a reason the first session this morning was slightly less full than yesterday. My typing speed may also have suffered